Manchester City got what they wanted from this game, a victory. That’s nine points out of nine in Group F, which means they have done many of the hard yards of qualification before the clocks have even gone back.
This was a good Napoli team they beat here, too. Top of Serie A, they had scored almost as many goals as City prior to this meeting. The scores were 37 to 34.
But the fact that margin had increased only from three to four goals at the end of this game relayed the fact that Pep Guardiola and his gilded team did not, for once, have everything their own way.
It was, on reflection, a very strange game of football but certainly a good one. For the first 25 minutes City were majestic. Two goals up after only 13 minutes, they threatened to sweep Napoli away on a familiar tide of sky blue energy.
Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus scored early and they were familiar goals, created with such deftness and expertise that the actual scoring was the easy bit.
There could have been more, too. David Silva missed a good chance while Kevin De Bruyne hit the bar and Sterling was denied a second by the width of the goal line.
But as time wore on, Napoli regrouped and found territory and confidence, while City lost both. Dries Mertens saw a penalty saved by City goalkeeper Ederson late in the first half but Amadou Diawara did not miss his spot kick when presented with the opportunity with 18 minutes left.
After that, City were hanging on and had Napoli breached them for a second time nobody could really have said they didn’t deserve it.
So this turned out to be a night when we saw a spell of the new City, breathless and inspiring, but also an unexpected dose of old City as well.
For the neutral — and indeed their Premier League rivals —this was perhaps no bad thing. Nobody wants a perfect football team, after all. Where is the fun in that?
As for the City coach, it merely presents Guardiola with the first hint of a puzzle this season. Everything had looked so easy prior to this. Even a recent afternoon at champions Chelsea had proved straightforward.
But here the Catalan saw his team show a little of the fallibility that so dogged them at times last season.
At half-time De Bruyne, Silva and Fernandinho bickered as they left the field. Later, Fernandinho and Fabian Delph got in a tangle and presented Marek Hamsik with an open goal. Somehow, John Stones blocked.
So it was a night of pluses in terms of the result and some of the early football and a minus for what happened subsequently. Early on, City were as hypnotically good as they had been in demolishing Stoke City here at the weekend. Guardiola fielded the same starting 11 and his players flew from the traps breathing fire.
It’s funny how confidence breeds football such as this. The likes of Sterling — five goals in seven games beforehand — and De Bruyne had an air of utter certainty about their football and it was terrific to watch.
It took City only nine minutes to score and the pattern was familiar. A crossfield pass from Fernandinho found Leroy Sane and when he released Silva to the byline, the low cross was converted by Sterling after Kyle Walker’s first effort had been blocked. City were swarming all over Napoli and an avalanche of goals seemed likely.
Italian coach Maurizio Sarri had sprayed Guardiola with compliments beforehand, asking that his team suffer a quick death if indeed a kill it was to be.
By the quarter hour, he looked as though he may get his wish. Napoli defender Raul Albiol headed a centre straight to De Bruyne and when the Belgian crossed low the same player could not intercept and Jesus swept home at the far post.
It was easy for City and embarrassing for an Italian team that arrived with such a reputation.
De Bruyne then hit the bar from 25 yards and Sterling was denied by a combination of keeper Pepe Reina and defender Kalidou Koulibaly as the ball briefly came to rest right on the line.
Another goal at that point and this contest was over. But Napoli, driven on by their exasperated coach, slowly began to find themselves and they had already threatened when Walker climbed over Albiol in the 38th minute to concede a penalty.
Centre forward Mertens struck it reasonably well but Ederson was bright enough to delay his dive a fraction and save with his legs.
With their lead in tact at the break, that should have been enough for City. A really top draw European team would have been able to come out and close this game down.
But City couldn’t do it. They tried to reassert themselves with an increase in tempo but they only grew uncertain at the back. Not surprisingly, Napoli targeted stand-in full back Delph and he had his moments of nervousness.
But the second penalty of the night came from the other side as Faouzi Ghoulam drove hard at Fernandinho and the retreating Brazilian brought him down. Diawara’s kick was placed well and this time Ederson could not save.
Napoli were back in the game and nobody would have been surprised had an equaliser come in the remaining 18 minutes.
So a night that began gleefully and expressively ended with something of a reality check for City. It may not be a bad thing. And, anyway, they won. Again.
